Make Your Own Fold-Out Chalkboard

I'm always customizing my work environment - cleaning the desk, reorganizing, testing new pens, making playlists..you know. All the stuff you do as an excuse not to actually work. My favorite customization of my workspace (where I almost never actually work, honestly) is my fold-out chalkboard.

I take notes all over. There are little notebooks in the pockets of each of my jackets, and one on my dashboard, one by my bed. Sometimes I brainstorm by typing into Evernote. And sometimes I just want to crank up some music and draw on a chalkboard.

My apartment is small. Wall-space is a real commodity - there's no way I could find the space for an actual chalkboard of any size. But I do have room for a fold-out one that I made for roughly 30 bucks (though it would've been more if I didn't have hinges and castors lying around).

It fits right up against the rack where I keep my pots and pans:





Making this thing is easy as pie. Most lumber and home-goods type stores sell folding closet doors in sets of 2 for about 20 bucks. They're light weight and smooth - you do want smooth (my first one was made using closet doors I found in the alley; they were rough and a pain to erase).  All you need besides the doors is some chalkboard spray paint, a set of castors (wheels), and some hingest to attach the thing to the wall.  Drill holes in the bottom to insert the castors, then spray down the inside panels with chalkboard paint, then voila! Attach it to your wall. When not in use as a chalkboard, it fills two inches of otherwise useless space (blocking my view of the pots and pans - no big loss) and doubling as a hat rack / mini calendar I added to the front using leftover chalkboard paint:


But open it up, and there it is: a chalkboard that I don't have anywhere near 

enough room for otherwise:


By taking a picture of it using Evernote before heaving out to the coffee shop, you can pretty much sync the chalkboard with your computer.


No comments:

Adam's New Book: Sept 2013